Philanthropy

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) is a nonprofit organization focused on the development of comparative data to enable higher-performing funders. CEP’s mission is to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness – and, as a result, their intended impact. This mission is based on a vision of a world in which pressing social needs are more effectively addressed.

It stems from a belief that improved effectiveness of philanthropic funders can have a profoundly positive impact on nonprofit organizations and the people and communities they serve.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were an objective rating system so that donors could choose the best nonprofits to donate to just as investors use rating agencies to pick the best companies to invest in? Don’t answer; it’s a rhetorical question. Here’s what you need to know about some of the best-known charity rating organizations:

Effective altruism is about answering one simple question: how can we use our resources to help others the most? Rather than just doing what feels right, we use evidence and careful analysis to find the very best causes to work on. But it’s no use answering the question unless you act on it. Effective altruism is about following through. It’s about being generous with your time and your money to do the most good you can.

Follow important developments in online fundraising with this new data dashboard. See which causes have raised the most, which parts of the country have contributed the most – by zipcode, how the frequency of giving correlates with amount given, and more.

The data will be updated weekly through the end of the year, so check back often. This information has been compiled from millions of online donations made through Network for Good, the online-giving platform, and can help your organization benchmark its efforts against similar groups and find insights into donors in your region.

The Giving Code: Silicon Valley Nonprofits and Philanthropy a new report funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and supported by 13 partners and 19 advisors, reflects a year of research and analysis, and conversations with more than 300 community stakeholders—from high net worth individuals and their advisors, to leaders of community-based organizations.

The Giving Code builds on work that others have done, but also breaks new ground, providing a holistic portrait of the region’s nonprofit and philanthropy ecosystems—their size and shape, how they operate, where and why they do or do not intersect. In it, the authors examine and challenge Silicon Valley’s emerging “giving code,”—an implicit approach to philanthropy embodied by new hi-tech donors—exploring the divides that exist between local philanthropists and community-based nonprofits, and sharing ideas for how to bridge the gaps. Download a free copy here.

This first-of-its-kind longitudinal analysis of household giving, draws on a gold-standard survey of 9,000 households conducted nationwide every two years since 2000 by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

The topline results are discouraging. The share of Americans who give to charity has dropped across all ages and education and incomes levels. From 2000 to 2014, the proportion of American households that gave declined from 66.2 percent to 55.5 percent.

Details on the GenerosityforLife website with giving data provided at the state and regional levels. These examine giving by income and education levels, marital status, and more.

Research tool developed by ProPublica

In April 2013, the IRS released structured data culled from the tax returns of almost 616,000 tax-exempt organizations. ProPublica has created this database which you can use to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download their tax filings going back as far as 2001. This database does not include private foundations.

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